I’m a fan of Bastl and I have been since I first saw them in Frankfurt in 2014. They’re makers of excellent hardware and ever since I first met them they’ve made more and more excellent devices.

I met them in Berlin this year at Loop, as they were running a workshop and I was using the space for a workshop directly after them. They were kind enough to provide me with one of their new Kastle synths. I posted about Kastle a few weeks ago. It’s an awesome little device and packs way more punch than you’d ever think from a tiny little micro modular.

Bastl’s latest video on Kastle gives a detailed walk through of the synth and is really worth watching. But be warned, you might not be able to turn back!

But of course Bastl Instruments do so much more, and in fact their latest foray into DIY is a cause for celebration in itself. OMSynth miniLab is a circuit development and performance interface designed to help inventors quickly build and experiment with creative circuits. It was designed with beginners in mind but is perfectly suited for seasoned builders and complex circuit development.

In many ways OMSynth miniLab seems like a likely successor to Teenage Engineering’s now discontinued OpLab, although in many ways a lot more hands on and experimental. This is a device that could get people involved in some real experimentation, which can only be a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

If that wasn’t enough Bastl have also announced bitRanger ADDON boards, BITBOARD & SYNAPSIS. bitRanger in itself is an excellent experimental synth and these new add ons take it up to the next level. The BitBoard is a breadboard add-on module that allows users to build custom circuits and user interfaces for the BitRanger, and the synapsis is a 4×4 pushbutton matrix that offers performative control of the Bit Ranger.

When you add all of this up, what you get is a synth company who are really pushing the boundaries of modular, of experimentation, and of miniaturisation too. These are not easy boundaries to push. What Bastl are doing is hard, and yet they make it seem easy, effortless. That requires real skill and a generous helping of excellent design talent.

Personally, I think that Bastl have a very bright future. Who knows where they’ll go next, but wherever it is it’s going to be exciting and probably break some new ground. I’ll be watching whatever it is they do in 2017, and I bet it’ll be great.

I’ll leave you with this interview with Bastl after the workshop they did at Loop.

“Here are the Minisizer and bitRanger playing together, with additional sounds form the MicroGranny 2 and the Volca Beats Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c…

The bitRanger acts as sequencer and modulator for itself and the Minisizer. It feeds its audio into the Minisizer too, where it’s mixed with sweet analog waves and sent through the 24dB ladder filter. Additionally I’m launching samples from the MicroGranny. The Volca Beats is up on drum duty, synced to the bitRanger, although I’m also adding some percussion sounds from the bitRanger and Minisizer in later as well.

Bastl Instruments bitRanger is a patchable analog logic computer which sculpts sonic worlds ranging from data noise to melodic arpeggios. In this demo, I want share some audio demos about this new release and I combine it with the KORG miniKaosspad2

Yesterday, I make a trip to Brno to the headquarter of Bastl Instruments where the guys behind this company organised a wonderful relaxing Synthesizer Fair with some developers and some music acts. Here is a walking tour of Synth Fest 2016 where you can see some complete stuff like the Bastl Instruments bitRanger.”

“The bitRanger is a patchable analog logic computer which sculpts sonic worlds ranging from data noise to melodic arpeggios. While being a handheld standalone synth its extensive connectivity makes so flexible that it can connect to almost anything: CV control its unique sound, sync it with drum machines and sequencers or use it as an algorithmic CV / GATE pattern generator.”